Austin Rivers?

I know you people aren't stupid. I know you've seen or heard of Austin Rivers' performance last night. And I think the question on many of our minds is, "is there any chance we see him in a Timberwolves uniform next season?"

DraftExpress.com has Rivers going 18th to Portland, and currently have our Pups at the 21st spot (Utah's pick). His stock will more than likely rise after last night's incredible performance, but there are some issues with the Duke freshman. He is frequently labeled as selfish. Obviously every outstanding player has to have a little bit of selfishness in him, or else he wouldn't be a diaper dandy on one of the nation's elite teams. But the great players know where to draw the line. Rivers sometimes takes too much upon himself and forces up a lot of shots. That being said, last night was the perfect dose of selfishness. The kid can straight up ball.

Another issue is his defense. This Duke team is being heralded as Coach K's worst defensive team in his long tenure in Durham. Rivers could be considered the worst offender of the group. I realize that there isn't a whole lot of defense played in the NBA (see Kurt Rambis' Wolves), but it seems as if Rick Adelman has his boys taking pride on the defensive end, which can translate into exciting games to watch and wins.

His three-point shooting was also a question mark, but he pretty much silenced those critics last night (isn't that right, Tyler Zeller).

In my opinion, Rivers is and extremely talented player with an incredibly high ceiling. He would fill a need and do a nice job offensively. On the contrary, he more than likely will not fall to us unless he chokes in March, which would make us question if we would even want him anyway. I also don't think he would fit in with this group of players. This is an unselfish team (with the exception of "B-Easy" most of the time) that likes to hustle and play defense. Rivers just wouldn't mesh with these guys (although I'm sure he'd love having Rubio dishing him the rock). Throwing all of this out the window, I trust that Rick Adelman...and I guess David Kahn, will make the right decision come draft day. Feel free to express your opinions on Doc's kid in the comments.